Ahmedabad, Jun 3: Royal Challengers Bengaluru huffed and puffed to 190 for nine in the Indian Premier League final against Punjab Kings, unable to apply scoreboard pressure on a conducive surface here on Tuesday.
While RCB were not only a tad conservative in the big final, luck also did not favour the fourth-time finalists chasing their maiden trophy a great deal, as each of their batters perished after getting a start.
And there were no fireworks on the night of the big final as Virat Kohli (43), looking to anchor the innings the way he has done in the past, perished after his laborious effort in the middle to say the least.
Kohli struck a mere three fours — two after the ninth over — as he got his 43 runs off 35 balls at 122.85.
RCB’s slowing down post the powerplay, in which they scored 55/1, also saw their batters farming the strike rather than taking initiative to aim for big overs with only 42 runs coming between overs 6-11.
Phil Salt (16) smashed a six and a four in the first over but in the next, connected with the toe end of the bat which went high in the air.
Positioned at mid-on, Punjab skipper Shreyas Iyer moved more than 10 paces backwards to take a fine catch for the first breakthrough off Kyle Jamieson (3/48).
Salt’s early exit had a major impact on how RCB’s innings progressed thereon but none of the following batters including Mayank Agarawal (24), Rajat Patidar (26) and Liam Livingstone (25) could convert their starts.
The lanky Jamieson a huge impact, not only finding the right lengths and variations to keep a lid on the batters but also accounting for three key batters to push RCB back further.
In the second over, after Salt smacked him for a four over mid-on, he had the RCB opener caught off Iyer and in the 11th, after Rajat Patidar hit him for a six over mid-off, Jamieson bowled a superb slow yorker which pinned the batter in front of the wickets.
Jamieson’s numbers were spoiled to some extent in the 17th over when Jitesh Sharma (24 off 10 balls, 2x4s, 2x6s) clobbered a couple of sixes and Livingstone one to collect 23 off it.
But once again, Jamieson ended it by trapping Livingstone leg-before off a full toss.
While he looked off colour in the first three overs giving away 37 runs, India star Arshdeep Singh bounced back strongly in the final over of the innings to strike thrice.
Arshdeep accounted for Krunal Pandya (4), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1) and Romario Shepherd (17), who threatened to take the score past 200 having hit a six and a four.(PTI)
